THE FORGOTTEN FOUNDATIONS OF FUNDRAISING

In The Forgotten Foundations of Fundraising, Jeremy Beer and Jeff Cain, cofounders of American Philanthropic, offer practical lessons and unconventional wisdom for both nonprofit leaders and novices in the art and science of raising money.

Drawing upon a wealth of experience, deploying an army of anecdotes, and using eye-opening American Philanthropic survey data, the authors provide a brisk, irreverent, and supremely useful introduction to fundraising for charities and nonprofits.

Student Free Press Association

100% revenue growth after implementing strategic development program

American Philanthropic began working with Student Free Press Association (SFPA) in June 2016 to construct and implement a strategic development plan. SFPA had, up to that point, achieved a great deal of success in nurturing principled journalistic talent to promote reform in higher education and in the media.

However, the organization had largely relied on a few major gifts and foundation grants, and felt that they lacked the donor base diversification needed to ensure long-term growth and sustainability. The organization’s leadership sensed that a more systematic and strategic approach to development would be needed in order to fuel future growth and avoid stagnation.

American Philanthropic built a custom strategic development plan and began directing the plan's implementation by SFPA. The result: SFPA realized 25% more revenue than projected in 2016 and is on track and achieved 2-year revenue growth of 100% by the end of 2017.

How did it work? American Philanthropic consultants undertook a two-month strategic development planning process with SFPA. After analyzing the organization’s present situation and future prospects, we identified goals and strategies to guide SFPA over the next two and a half years. The final strategic development plan articulated these goals and strategies, as well as a detailed series of steps and benchmarks to achieve and measure success.

Immediately after finalizing the strategic development plan, American Philanthropic began guiding SFPA's implementation of the plan, focusing on strengthening the foundation's solicitation program and growing its individual donor base.

After one year of collaboration, SFPA had added 6 new foundation donors, representing $250,000 in revenue. Additionally, by executing three multi-channel campaigns SFPA’s individual donor base grew by 440%. This revenue growth is allowing SFPA to expand its programmatic and operations staff, enabling the organization to more effectively achieve its mission.

American Philanthropic is registered as “fundraising counsel,” “fundraising consultants,” or other similar designations in all states requiring this kind of registration. We did not act as a “professional fundraiser” in the case cited above, meaning, among other things, that we did not at any time solicit funds, assets, or property on our client’s behalf.

Interested in our services?

Book a free consultation

we'd love to hear from you

Contact us to book a free consultation today. We are always available at info@americanphilanthropic.com or at 302-635-7354. But if you like forms, feel free to fill out the one below and we'll be in touch with you shortly.